Sigh. This doesn't sound like a motivating tactic. And we're pretty well stacked at OG. Not good, don't see how he can move like he'd need to in our OL zone blocking scheme. And we are not stacked at NG behind Martin. Bye-Bye dreams of Roh-Martin-RVB-Campbell line of Death and Destruction in 2011.

There's one highly ranked and un-committed DT recruit who was expressed interest in Michigan. There are two VHT (can't help it sometimes) recruits who are currently committed to other programs. If Rodriguez is moving Campbell because he might land a couple of these high schoolers who might be productive players in a couple of years, he needs to be fired immediately, after he gets hit in the nuts with a meat tenderizer.

Terry Talbott is pretty damn small for a DT - 6'3", 248. Richard Ash's star dropped precipitously in recruiting because he was out of shape and disinterested at camps. He's 6'3" 320, a dramatic weight gain from his high school days, which indicates that he had a lot of bad weight there. Of the two, I'm more hopeful with regard to Ash, but the lack of motivation and conditioning whammy that apparently is Will Campbell is preventing me from being too optimistic.

After a while, hoping against hope that high three-stars will overachieve at multiple spots on defense is just going to lead to more frustration. If Campbell really is an utter bust at DT - to the tune of never getting the chance to see the field at the position - it is a huge blow to our future prospects on defense. Someone please dissuade me that shit looks pretty goddamn grim on that side of the ball for the foreseeable future.

Again not being a smartass, but Talbott looks huge. I didn't run out and tackle him, but I did see him, watch him, and smile during pregame warm-ups. I didn't know there was a general consensus that he seemed small. As a contrast, LaLota did seem small to me. Talbott looks to be good sized. Ash does seem heavier

On a positive note, Ken Wilkins is absolutely enormous. Big and Muscle Big, not chub. Eyball test only, he should be a terror at some point. Feelin' any better?*

How does "disinterested at camps" and "out of shape" equate to unmotivated at Michigan? I think it's safe to say that most freshman come to their first summer workout out of shape.

If you find me anything that says that Ash hasn't been going to workouts or has been slacking at practice, then I will take this all back. Otherwise, your freak-out over Ash is a little premature.

Also with respect to Talbott (the DT one) he could, you know, get bigger. Omameh was a "small" 2-star that got bigger over 2 years and is now a good, starting OG. If I remember correctly, Roundtree was 150ish lbs when he came in; Tate and Denard weren't exactly the biggest guys as true freshman.

I wouldn't give up on them yet or even Campbell for that matter. Brandon Graham was in Carr's doghouse his sophomore year b/c of conditioning issues.

Some guys just need time to grow physically; some guys just need time to grow mentally and mature; some guys just don't pan out or never reach their potential. In 2-3 years, we will see which category each of these guys falls under.

People can gain weight and strength in college, but you've got to remember that we're not the only team that has discovered this. As Barwis Himself has admitted, genetics are the number one determinant for how explosive/athletic/fast/whatever each player is going to be. Will's frame is simply on a different order of magnitude than Talbott's and we were led to believe that he had extraordinary athleticism to match. Maybe Talbott will pan out, but it's less likely for someone with his size and recruiting profile than for dudes like Campbell. No matter what, it's hard to imagine that Talbott will develop into a dominating NT, though he might turn out to be a good DT.

And you know what - you're right about Graham. There is perhaps no better example of a Fat Dude who decided to become a Destroyer of Souls after a couple of years. So maybe there is hope for Will, but if the move to the OL actually goes down, I don't see it happening. He's only got two more years of eligibility, after all.

Anyone else think Big Will looked ok, yeah even good on a few goal line series this year? I always specifically watched him when he came, and he never looked bad, nor worthy of moving to our deep OL. I guess this must ultimately be an indictment on his fitness/technique for what the 3 3 5 requires at nose. Remember the sweet play of MM against IU to run down that screen play? I just don't think Big Will is in shape to play fast on D.

Why do people assume that if a recruiting service ranks you 5 stars that you automatically can play at this level?

He has had a couple of bright moments, but a majority of the time, he plays with terrible technique, and gets blown off the ball. How many years are you willing to waste trying to hammer down technique issues with him before you try to salvage the player somehow?

I'm not necessarily questioning whether this is the right move or not - if I truly believed that Rodriguez was so incapable of reading a depth chart that he just wanted to move a potentially dominating DT to OG for shits and giggles, I'd be playing naked in traffic right now.

I'm just saying that our depth at DT is not so good, and that Big Will was expected to be a dominant player in the middle of the line. If this is never going to come to pass - and the move to OG makes this seem all but certain - it is a huge hit for the development of the defense that many fans had in mind.

I hope you don't think you're clarifying something. Yes - the disappointment in this scenario is rooted in the chasm of disjuncture between expectation and reality in the case of young Mr. Campbell. But when we, as fans, look to the future for hopeful signs that our defense may cease being rather bad, we do so on the basis of expectations. If you don't think expectations for the future have any part in thinking about the football team, you should completely ignore recruiting (and maybe you do, I don't know.) The expectation that Campbell would be a high-level performer on the DL - an expectation that was reasonable, given the overwhelming consensus among recruiting services that Campbell was a hellbeast - has now been thrown in the ol' shitcan, and thus so has a significant basis for any optimism relating to our defense.

Most would agree that a class averaging 3.7 stars is more likely to yield good players than one averaging 3.1. What I'll never understand, though, is why anyone gives a @#$% about someone's Rivals/Scout/ESPN ranking after practice starts at UMich. Needless to say, this has been used against RichRod. Why, for example, wasn't he able to coach Justin Schifano (a four-star from the '05 class) up to an All-America level? (That's a bit of an inside joke.)

As far as I'm concerned, everything gets zeroed at that point (that is, after practice starts). Were that not the case, Cobrani Mixon would be playing in the Big Ten (rather than the AAA-equivalent MAC). (Aside: He might still be better than Obi.) As well, Kevin Grady would have retired with 4000+ career yards.

I think you are overreacting and over-valuing the "star" system. Rodriguez would not move the backup NT to offense just for the hell of it. Give Rodriguez the benefit of the doubt that he's not just moving people around on a whim or "punting" on a arbitrarily high rated DL recruit. This move is obviously warranted by something to a top-tier NCAA Head Coach, so who are we to judge otherwise? To me, this shows that Campbell was not progressing as he should at that position, may have better value to the team on offense, and subsequently was passed up by some guys that could be peaking in college as opposed to peaking in high school. The 5-star rating he received was because of his size and dominance in high school, which was warranted. Sure, those ratings typically correlate to performance, but not in every instance. Campbell is not the lynchpin of our defense. His move to offense will not doom our defense for the next three years. Come back to reality.

EDIT: Well, while I was writing this, I was beat to the punch by everyone.

(Recruiting rankings aren't always right - clearly, in the case of Campbell - but there is a high level of correlation between recruiting rankings and career success. Brian usually tries to ferret out whether there is a good reason that rankings might be inaccurate - see: Guru Reliability - but no such reason exists for Talbott. He might be good, he might not, but the most likely outcome based on recruiting rankings is that he'll eventually be decent.)

This is off topic but on the subject of predicting talent, wouldn't you assume that the one position where the high school to college transition makes the least amount of difference would be kicker? I really don't get how Gibbons is such a flop.

I mean, Will Campbell manhandled high schoolers and in college you need technique he never apparently learned. But isn't the kicking game more or less the same? Can't scouts generally tell if he always kicks low or can't produce under pressure? Derp.

You're right - the level of competition is exactly the same, inasmuch as it doesn't really affect what the kicker is doing. Actually, there might be some expectation that the snap and the hold will be better at the college level (though this hasn't been the case so far at Michigan.)

But because the kicker is so isolated, and because he has a binary outcome - success or failure - the change in pressure from HS to college may be unique. My thought is that if we actually had someone teaching our kickers "technique," they might perform better under pressure - muscle memory and all that.

This simply does not compute. Wouldn't you rather have at least some bodies back there for depth if he is behind the others? I mean geez we have a great offense (even greater OL?). WTF. Lets strip the defense of another player because its in such good shape with surpluses at each position and all.

There can really be no other explanation than Campbell failing at the NT position. I have to assume that anyone with any sense would keep him at NT if there was any chance he would pan out there. Either he's just not going to make it at NT at the college level or, like someone else pointed out, he requested the switch. There's no reason for him to get reps at that position and take them from someone else who is more likely to see the field.

I know people want to wait and see with all these recruits but I just have a real bad feeling he may not live up to his 5 star potential. Obviously rankings don't tell the whole story but he was supposed to be a sure thing DT if there ever was one. Just strange.

Omameh has one of the guards locked down and I think we can pencil in qwash.

Soo.... Where is he going to play besides as an extra body? This move boils my blood. I just don't get it.

I will criticize rr for this because this is fucking moronic. We have no one on defense the solution is not to burn more redshirts (like wills last year) and to put more guys on offense and especially not our highest rated defensive recruit.

Don't hold back, tell us how you really feel. I don't think the move is permanent if it is made at all. It is up to Will whether he plays offense or defense. Want to play offense stay at 330. Want to play defense get down to around 310 and stay low.

Who knows- maybe this is a little taste of motivation for him a la Carr moving a bloated BG to defensive tackle for a time. Perhaps Rodriguez is hoping all this FAIL commentary regarding Campbell coupled with his embarrassment on Saturday will finally get him to put down the Hot Pockets and pick up a weight. Personally, I think he should just tell Campbell to follow Mike Martin around all day and do exactly what he does. I'm finding Campbell to be on a completely different scale of frustration than the guys trying hard but falling short on the field.

PS- are any of Banks, Sagasse, Patterson available for a 5th year? My apologies if one or all of them is already maxed out on eligibility.

You honestly have no idea what you're talking about. You're not at practice and have no idea how Campbell is performing (or not performing). This kind of post is exactly what people were talking about in a previous thread (http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/fan-anger) - talking without having any idea what you are talking about.

Have no idea what you're talking about, by this standard. Like it or not, fan message boards are premised upon the notion that the home team's coaches are fallible human beings. If that's not cool with you, maybe you should stick to the OT posts.

Luckily for me, I've never held myself out as being knowledgable in areas where I have no knowledge. Judging from your above posts, you appear to approach things differently. And with respect to your last comment, maybe you should wait until you know what you're talking about before you tap the keyboard rather than spout off at the mouth as a knee-jerk reaction to some piece of news about something POTENTIALLY happening.

That makes no sense. No where did I say people were wrong about wanting something to happen (or not happen). What I said is that they are wrong for having no clue what they are talking about while holding themselves out to be experts. For example, a poster calling Rodriguez an idiot for doing something that they have no internal knowledge about. Its one thing to disagree by stating you disagree and a completely other thing to call someone out without having any tangible evidence for your position. If you go to court, your opinion is worthless without evidence supporting it. Similarly, unsubstantiated words are worth less than the cyberspace they occupy.

I'm unclear about what you're saying. You draw a distinction between "disagreeing" and "calling someone out." Is this just a matter of tone? Also, is there a difference between a stating an opinion and presenting oneself as an expert?

As for the last point: in court, evidence is important. (Of course the notion of "evidence" and "facts" is much more problematic than the meanings those words suggest, but we can leave that aside.) But as your attorney, I feel obligated to advise you that MGoBlog is not a court, so if you're waiting on your MGoClients to pay you for the MGoBillable hours you're putting in on the MGoBoard, you're going to MGoOverdraw your checking account.

What do you think Brian does on the front page every day? You know he's never been a coach and doesn't see practice, right? I'm not saying that everyone on the board knows as much about football, or Michigan football, as Mr. Cook (I sure as hell don't.) But I think you might be confused about the nature of the enterprise that is MGoBlog.

Thank you for enlightening me about the nature of MGoBlog and who can say what. I'll go ahead and let people who have no expertise say things that are completely unsubstantiated so they can see their words in print online because that's what MGoBlog is supposed to be about. Good call.

To my mind, you're the one who is trying to limit what is allowable on MGoBlog. I'm disagreeing with your specific comments, while you're trying to say that a whole group of comments should be discouraged.

I agree with you...IF this actually happens. I think this is a motivation technique to get Campbell to lose weight and put in the effort he needs to, basically akin to LC throwing transfer papers at problem players.

Do you really think he would say something like this to attract some 5* prospects. I am not saying you are wrong, but I am not sure it's common practice to do that. I may be wrong, but IMHO I think it's a stretch.

This is a good abject lesson for those of you who await with bated breath to see if a 17 year old decides to toil for M. People on this very blog were extremely apprehensive when Will Campbell seemed poised to commit his talents to another school and then extremely ecstatic when he chose M. This tendency to fascinate about how much of a "beast" a recruit is going to be, feeds the "he's a bust" mentality when the player doesn't dominate as a Soph.

That's interesting - what if this means the staff isn't optimistic about landing enough OL recruits for this year, like Bryant and Zettel? If Campbell redshirts next year he effectively replaces one of them as a "new" recruit, albeit with only two years of eligibility?

First of all, you don't have to swear to make your point. Secondly, sure, he was a highly rated player, but those rankings are arbitrary. When he came here, he may have had the potential to be one of those players, but you talk as if he is the equivalent of one of those players and Rodriguez is kicking him to the curb. Sometimes things don't pan out exactly how you think they should. Relax. It's not the end of Michigan football. If he's getting beat out by other guys to warrant a move to the OL, then fine, make the move. I would be more upset if Rodriguez selects his starting roster based upon the rating that Rivals gives each player, which seems to be what you put emphasis on.

That's a fantastic point. While I'm not putting Campbell in the 'bust' category yet (he's still young), I am guilty as charged in regards to being all-aboard the Will Campbell hype train, when in reality (at least thus far) he hasn't been an impact player and we wouldn't really have been hurt much these past 2 years had he gone elsewhere.

Makes me wonder what other things we freak out about will really end up being inconsequential down the road, in the grand scheme.

I don't understand. Who's supposed to back up Martin next year? Talbott? Assuming he packs on the requisite 50 pounds of muscle required to be big enough to play the position. Ash? Didn't he come in with major weight issues? That short little Rudy guy? Who?

For Talbott to put on that much weight under Barwis. Roh benefitted from some serious weight gain from year 1 to 2, Isaiah Bell is up to 245, Crable put on some serious weight (yes I know that wasn't Barwis, just using as an example), Mouton put on some serious weight after originally being a safety recruit. Depending on what the weight training was like for Talbott in high school he may have just begun to realize his physical limits. I'm not saying he'll be any good, I'm just saying it's not improbable for him to get up to 285, which would be adequate.

will wait to place judgment on big Will until I see him on the field more. We all thought Demens couldn't have been that good since he was stuck behind Obi but that all changed last week. Sure big Will didn't play very well last year, but he should have redshirted so that was to be expected. He seems to have played fairly well in goal line situations this year and had a batted pass in the BGSU game. I think he needs some time in the rotation to prove he can't play the position before switching his position.

The reason that there was such hand wringing about Demens getting a shot is when he actually got snaps, he looked remotely competent. The only reason that there is hand wringing about BWC is because he is a 5 star player, because on the field, when he got snaps, other than his few,isolated bright moments against OSU last year, he has been rather terrible.

for the first few games noted that he looked ok/good on the goal line. I have watched him on on all of the plays that he has been in for and while he still plays too high much of the time he looks much improved from last year and has been getting consistent penetration on the goal line. I would be shocked that after two years of practicing as a defensive tackle that he would have a bigger impact on the team by switching to a position that has much better depth than the position that he is presently at. Let's not forget that Paterson and Segasse are both seniors so we need someone to back up Mike Martian assuming he doesn't go pro.

This is absolutely terrible and confusing and awful. How on earth is this possible? I mean, is it even remotely possible this helps his chances of contributing in the short term? Have they given up on trying to coach him on defense so they will see if he likes offense better?

On a side note, the bye week where people are seriously questioning your coaching ability might not be the best time to tell the press that you're kind of speculating on a position switch midway through the year for a 5-star prospect in year 2 with your system.

I'm not saying anything either way about his ability to coach, but man, PR is a bit suspect no?

I am more interested at the moment in who may move around in our secondary. It stated the player may move from one safety position to another so maybe they will try out Cam Gordon at Spur or Bandit and see if Marvin or Carvin can hold down the FS position.

This is giving a radio station (nameless) and host (nameless) stupid fodder by saying Um can't evaluate talent and he stated that UM in the past 3 years has had more 5 stars fail than any team in the country?!?! WTF? My god do they do ANY, even the smallest bit of research before coming up with shit like that?

It's upsetting because I was hoping that we'd see more progress out of him and that he'd be potentially pushing Martin for playing time. Having two big scary potential All-Big Ten NT's is better than one.

But if the coaches make this choice I have to defer to their judgement, they see what these guys are capable of in practice everyday.

I guess I'm more disappointed in Big Will at this point than I am the coaching staff. If he had improved and lived up to his billing, he probably wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.

Maybe they feel that if WC learns offensive techniques, he will better understand how his lack of defensive technique hurts him, and that he will be a better DT next year. It's sorta like how ex-HS QB's who have the requisite speed make really good DB's.

For those of you who are losing your minds and cursing the coaches over this possibility, just relax. You make the point that we have more depth at OL and our DL needs bodies as many of the guys in the rotation are seniors. Do you honestly believe that the head coach is not aware of this? If it were as cut and dry as a numbers game then Big Will would probably be cemented at NT. Maybe Talbott/Ash are proving to be monsters, maybe it is a motivational tactic, maybe Big Will just cannot hack it at NT. Whatever the reason for the possible position switch for Campbell is, I would have to believe that the coaches are privy to much more information than us and there is probably something going on that we cannot see. I'm sure it is not a case of Big Will throwing our players around like tackling dummies in practice and the coaches deciding they didn't want to play a future star.

Some people need to calm down. RR said it was possible, not definite. I'm not willing to write off any player's career halfway through their true sophomore year, but what if Big Will is a bust. He wouldn't be the first 5* bust and he sure won't be the last. Too many people jump to conclusions and panic as soon as they hear the wind blow.

In terms of his current play, WC was absolutely BLOWN UP on that blocked field goal (can't find the picture, but they showed a replay on ABC during the game)

Maybe BWC is going to work with the offensive guards so he had a little more technique on special teams? Maybe he's being motivated to lose weight or never play real meaningful football? Maybe he's pregnant and expecting? I have no idea, but I trust our coaches

And if RR didn't recruit WC because he couldn't play or if WC went out of state all we would have heard for the past 2 years is how RR hates Detroit, hates recruiting instate kids and wants the PSL to implode

It has to be Marvin Robinson to the Deep Safety position. That is a very good sign. Robinson was buried behind Kovacs at the other safety position, given that Kovacs is one of our better players on defense and a likely starter the rest of his career. From all reports, Robinson is more athletic than Gordon and Vinopal, and so should provide some good competition at that position.

You are on fire today! Its one thing to be upset about the development. Its another thing to fly off the handle and start claiming that the coaches don't know what they are doing, blah, blah, blah. I'm not saying that is what you're doing here, I'm just saying that lots of people are overreacting without really knowing what the hell they are talking (typing) about.

I do want to say again that I'm not claiming Rodriguez doesn't know what he's doing here (though unless there's really no hope for Will at DT, I think his utility for the team might still be greater at DT than OG - that considering our depth chart, the value of one good DT so outweighs the value of another good OG that even a significantly lesser likelihood of success at DT still means a greater expected value at DT.*)

My disappointment is based on the notion that Rodriguez is most likely correct in suggesting this move - that is, that Will just ain't gonna cut it at DT. And I think this is some seriously bad news for the defense, since I was hoping that Will would come into his own next year and wreck fools like Alan Branch in 2012 (after Martin has left.)

*Please excuse this humanities student's attempt to make probabilities-type logic take up six lines of text.

This is just stupid to even bring up by RR. Leave it alone, if you want to try him out, try him out behind the walls of Fort Schembechler and let the insiders post ambiguous posts, before you blare it to the world.

this guy is really starting to piss me off. He finds it "amuzing." Coach, none of your fans find anything about what has happened to this program to be amuzing. I don't find it amuzing that he is taking a shit on the only 15 minutes of life this team has showed since MSU blew into town. Open your f#%king eyes man.

this guy is really starting to piss me off. He finds it "amuzing." Coach, none of your fans find anything about what has happened to this program to be amuzing. I don't find it amuzing that he is taking a shit on the only 15 minutes of life this team has showed since MSU blew into town. Open your f#%king eyes man.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here, but this level of anger is a little unhealthy. Maybe you should take a little internet break.

Not sure if it is just plain bad luck or some type of issue with players who are more highly ranked, but we seem to be burning through the more highly ranked players. Wasnt Justin Turner also in the same class? So the top ranked player from Michigan for that year as well as the top ranked player from Ohio, both supposed defensive phenoms both now appear to be lost causes.

Sorry if I'm wrong but didin't BWC play some tackle in the Army All Star game(Same game he picked Michigan!!!) and he did pretty well if my memory serves me correct. I remember how the announcers said he could be dominant on either side of the ball in college.... What a monster of an OL that would be, Lewan, BWC, Molk, Omameh and Schofield??? Think positive people!!!!!!

What about the other changes. With BWC moving to OG, RR said that a guard would be moving to tackle. Is this Barnum? I can't think of another one, and he was a backup tackle last year if I remember correctly. I do agree that MRob would have to be an option for the safety move. Maybe Vinopal, but I think MRob has more natural ability and a huge upside.

It could be Omameh moving to OT, and the best 2 of BWC, Q and Barnum at OG. We could have a starting group of Lewan, Barnum, Molk, Q, and Omameh next fall, with Schofield, Huyge, BWC, Khoury and Mealer backing them up. Not bad at all.

I know. I realize there are more bright spots in the class than dull spots, however, I wish the guys listed would have turned out the way we expected. I'm not blaming anyone or anything. These things happen. I also have not given up hope on WC being a solid contributor by the time he is done. Maybe he could even be more than that, but I don't think this is a great sign. I didn't mean to be so negative there, but some of this bad luck or whatever anyone wants to call what is happening on the defensive side of the ball is getting increasingly frustrating. For the record I do have high hope for a lot of that class.

While you make a good point about depth issues in the next few years, we don't know what the rest of the 2011 recruiting class is going to bring, let alone the 2012 class. I will agree that it may not look all that good for Big Will, but I don't see this happening or being permanent. Hopefully, this next offseason he can keep working out and on his techniques and make an impact next season. I can't classify him as a "bust" yet.

Considering how highly rated he was as a recruit and at a position of need. We are washing out the limited amount of defensive recruits that we have signed between stuff like this and transfers/off the field issues. There is no scenario where this is a positive since I find it improbable he will play guard next year as a Jr leaving a possibility of a single year of guard play as his contribution at UM.

Call me crazy, but I seem to remember either Rivals or Scout saying that he'd be a better fit for OT than DT at this level. I know for sure that was the case for Joseph Barksdale, so maybe I'm getting my wires crossed.

It seems to be fairly well-established that RR has somewhat minimal day-to-day involvement with the defense; he's essentially admitted as much himself. That also appears to extend to player personnel decisions at game time, since apparently it was Robinson or some other defensive coach who decided in a fit of genius to yank Demens out of the lineup early against Iowa, and it was only when RR noticed this (and the result) that he got after GERG on the sidelines. Demens went right back in. I wonder if RR has also concluded that Campbell deserves more playing time, and instead of outright ordering his staff to play him, RR is dangling the possibility of taking a prize DL recruit completely out of the hands of the defensive coaching staff, in a "use it or lose it" sort of message. I say this in part because RR said that he was going to bring it up with his D staff, which seems to imply that the switch idea hadn't originated with them. A switch doesn't necessarily mean that the staff are doing a lousy job of development, given the well-established opinions by recruiting experts that WC was a better OL prospect anyhow. I think playing defense is as much a matter of having an attitude as physical talent, and I wonder if WC just doesn't have the requisite aggressiveness for success on the DL at this level. It would be disappointing to see him leave the defense if for no other reason that it's the unit in most need of talent right now.

This is a really interesting post. Where did you get the info regarding the Demens and Ezeh substitutions on Saturday? This does seem to make sense in light of what Rodriguez said on running the Campbell position switch past the defensive coaches, but I'm just curious.

Not sure what I think about all this, to be honest. I do hope that this is at leat in part a wake-up call either to the defensive coaches or to Will ... but I'm not sure why it needed to be public, in any event. Maybe that just gets players' attention better sometimes (Lloyd did this sometimes also; Braylon and "the same page" come to mind.)

I read about Coach Rod pulling Ezeh off as well, in an earlier thread. If that was the case, then I am beginning to worry about GERG. It troubled me that Demens was taken out on the 3rd series.

Your theory sounds interesting. If true, I would be a bit worried about GERG and the defensive coaches. I don't think you should send any messages thru the media to either players or coaches especially. This means that there is a communication breakdown and Coach Rod may be losing faith in GERG. Now, it's pretty late wat work, so I may not be reading you correct. Please correct if so.

I read about Coach Rod pulling Ezeh off as well, in an earlier thread. If that was the case, then I am beginning to worry about GERG. It troubled me that Demens was taken out on the 3rd series.

Your theory sounds interesting. If true, I would be a bit worried about GERG and the defensive coaches. I don't think you should send any messages thru the media to either players or coaches especially. This means that there is a communication breakdown and Coach Rod may be losing faith in GERG. Now, it's pretty late wat work, so I may not be reading you correct. Please correct if so.

Maybe I'm being overly optimistic (and I'm fairly certain this point has come up in the 70+ post below), but I guess I read RR's statement as more of a possibility in the short term/auxiliary than some permanent move. If he honestly thinks WC should be on the offensive side of the ball, then either Campbell has been incredibly disappointing in practice (not out of question), has shown some great ability as a guard, or RR feels that Martin and Paterson are not going to relinquish their spots soon enough for Campbell to see the field. Personally, I want to think that Campbell is just growing into his body and the learning curve is simply longer than you would like, but that he will be a force next year. Moving him to guard would seem to be a waste of a perfectly fine tackle prospect - if nothing else, I'm sure Campbell could be taught to just run forward and occupy blockers.

I'm not looking through almost 200 comments, so I'm sure this has been said. Campbell is pretty much a bust. This one is on the coaches. He looks like he doesn't even know how to play. How is that possible?

say im not overly impressed with the coaching on this one. You have a 5 star recruit that alot of great programs wanted at DT and he hasnt seen the field all that much and now a potential pos. change. Coach Tall isnt impressing me!

I agree with Chop on this one. The problems with Hankins didn't have anything to do with his innate talent, they concerned conditioning/weight issues. Instead of refusing to tender an offer until it was too late, RR & Co would have been far better advised to extend a conditional offer to Hankins. I.E., we'd love to see you in a winged helmet and are extending you this offer, but it is contingent on you working hard on your conditioning and weight. If you follow through, welcome to Michigan. If you don't, then we will pull the offer.

What's especially puzzling about it is that we've offered plenty of other players who are readily acknowledged by the Michigan staff to need large quantities of time with Barwis before they're really ready to play. Why was Hankins so incredibly different? Hell, they've even extended and/or honored offers to defensive players who sustained serious knee injuries before coming to Michigan, who then subsequently left the program over playing time issues. But we couldn't offer a guy with great talent at a position of need simply because as a 17-yr old he wasn't in true D1A shape yet? As they say, you never really know what's going to happen in recruiting, and that applies to coaching staffs as well as players.

I wonder if they would have handled Hankins differently had they known that Campbell wasn't going to progress very rapidly.

The D line has been the strength of our defense for the past 3 years. BG came in good and left a dominant first-rounder. Mike Martin is a freaking beast even when playing slightly out of position at NT and will play in the NFL. RVB has been solid to good. Banks has been making some plays. Sagesse and Patterson have been serviceable and sometimes good backups. Roh and Black came in as undersized true freshman and were above average pass-rushers with some pretty good technique. In short, an area with perenially thin depth has been a source of all of our defensive strength.

But one DL hasn't panned out by his true sophomore year? FIRE TALL!! HIM NOT UNDERSTAND RIVALRY

5 star rankings are justified........he obviously dominated in H.S., but relied too much on physical size and not enough on technique......let's hope he gets it together and plays solid football wherever they put him.